Friday, July 31, 2009

Yes, yes, we know some of you are asking us whether we plan on re-naming this blog “Saqib Politics Watch.” But this is not just another Facebook-related post. Read on.On July 21, the Montgomery County Young Democrats sent out the following mass email which included a voter registration message from Delegate Saqib Ali (D-39):

HELP DELEGATE SAQIB ALI REGISTER DEMOCRATS

Dear Young Dems,

I’m looking for some volunteers who are willing to do voter registration of specifically targetted people who live in Gaithersburg/Germantown/Montgomery Village/North Potomac area.

The Prerequistes for the tasks are:

Volunteers have access to the internet.Volunteers have cellphone/text message access.Volunteers can make personal trips to Gaithersburg/Germantown area homes if neccessary.

Volunteers be willing to talk on the phone to strangers to persuade them to register to vote for Dems. Whatever it takes! :)

I have identified about 500-800 people in my district who are likely sympathetic, but are not registered as Dems. Unless they are registered Democrats, they cannot of course vote in the Democratic Primary Election in September 2010. Many of them are my personal friends/acquaintance. Many of these people are new Americans or racial/ethnic/religious minorities.

So we sometimes have to “hunt down” these people and get them to fill the form. It might require multiple phone calls/emails and even personal home visits!! I’m very happy to pay the registrar a whopping $5 for every person on this list that can be flipped to Democrat. We can make it a competitive thing :)

All the personal info of these “targets” is stored in an online Google spreadsheet that is routinely updated by numerous other volunteers concurrently from their own homes in their own free time. So we don’t actually meet together at any one place or time. I’m happy to share this spreadsheet out to interested volunteers. I also have set up a Google Group (ie: Email list where all the volunteers share their info/activity).

- Saqib

CONTACT SAQIB AT: DELEGATE@SAQIBALI.ORG TO VOLUNTEER

Here’s the problem: § 3-205 of Maryland election law states that voter registration volunteers cannot “receive any form of compensation, including bonuses, that is based on the number of voter registration applications collected.”

Delegate Ali must have learned of this prohibition. He sent out a second message in a Montgomery County Young Democrats email on July 28 stating:

HELP DELEGATE SAQIB ALI REGISTER DEMOCRATS

Dear Young Dems,

I’m looking for some volunteers who are willing to do voter registration of specifically targetted people who live in Gaithersburg/Germantown/Montgomery Village/North Potomac area.

The Prerequistes for the tasks are:Volunteers have access to the internet.Volunteers have cellphone/text message accessVolunteers can make personal trips to Gaithersburg/Germantown area homes if neccessary.

Volunteers be willing to talk on the phone to strangers to persuade them to register to vote for Dems. Whatever it takes! :)

I have identified about 500-800 people in my district who are likely sympathetic, but are not registered as Dems. Unless they are registered Democrats, they cannot of course vote in the Democratic Primary Election in September 2010. Many of them are my personal friends/acquaintance. Many of these people are new Americans or racial/ethnic/religious minorities.

So we sometimes have to “hunt down” these people and get them to fill the form. It might require multiple phone calls/emails and even personal home visits!!

All the personal info of these “targets” is stored in an online Google spreadsheet that is routinely updated by numerous other volunteers concurrently from their own homes in their own free time. So we don’t actually meet together at any one place or time. I’m happy to share this spreadsheet out to interested volunteers. I also have set up a Google Group (ie: Email list where all the volunteers share their info/activity).

- Saqib

CONTACT SAQIB AT: DELEGATE@SAQIBALI.ORG TO VOLUNTEER

PLEASE NOTE: NO COMPENSATION IS BEING OFFERED FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT... JUST THE SATISFACTION OF BRINGING MORE AMERICAN CITIZENS INTO THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

None of the above establishes that Delegate Ali actually paid anyone for voter registrations, but the State Board of Elections may want to find out. As for Delegate Ali himself, well... his enemies are watching.